Former premier Najib Abdul Razak has accused Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad of “punishing” the people of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang with his reported proposal to cancel the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project.
Najib said while he did not mind such attempts to erase his legacy, the government should be more transparent and considerate in making such decisions.
He noted that the three states set to gain the most benefit from the ECRL project were not under Pakatan Harapan rule.
“Is this a continuity from the practice of punishing opposition states as done by Mahathir in his (first) 22 years as prime minister when the people of Kelantan were denied basic facilities such as highways, roads, clean water, and other infrastructure developments?,” questioned the Pekan MP in a Facebook post.
In making the claim, Najib pointed out that the government had pushed to cancel or postpone the RM66 billion project from Kelantan to Port Klang despite ongoing work of about 20 percent for its first phase.
Online portal The Malaysian Insight yesterday reported that a cancellation of the China-linked project would also cost Putrajaya RM22 billion in compensation and penalty charges.
“I was also made to understand that payment for construction of the ECRL project was based on construction progress and not the amount of time taken, as claimed by the government.
“However, it did not stop the government from using the false information as an excuse to terminate this project which was beneficial to the people,” he said.
Najib also said he had during his own tenure as prime minister, strived to ensure that all states, regardless if held by the opposition coalition, would receive all the basic infrastructure upgrades to benefit the people.
In fact, Najib said he had even approved more allocations for infrastructure upgrades in Kelantan under PAS rule as the state was seen to be less developed than others.
This, he said, was contrary to Mahathir’s new administration which had announced the cancellation of two mega projects – the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) and the MRT3 – just in its first two weeks of gaining federal power.
Najib said while the new government has a right to cancel or postpone various mega development projects approved during his time, such decisions should not be made merely as an attempt to erase his legacy as prime minister.
“I urge the government of today, if there was an intention to cancel projects that benefited the people, it must be done in a transparent manner and involving a detailed study which included seeking feedback from the people,” he said.
Mahathir had previously said the ECRL contract was “strange” as Malaysia had to fund the project with a loan from China, while also hiring contractors from that country.
Both the HSR and the ECRL projects have been branded by critics as the previous administration’s non-viable, big-ticket projects.
MKINI
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